Bella Jane’s Peaceful Birth

I don’t think I ever did a formal introduction. My name is Becky, I just turned 30 and this was my first baby [guess date 3/26]. I live in SLC Utah and am a registered nurse working in ICU.

I decided way back in nursing school that I wanted an unmedicated birth when the time came. My experience in the ICU further solidified this thought after bearing witness to what modern medicine does when we try to fix something that isn’t broken. I realized there is a time and place for medications and c-sections but not for a standard, healthy labor and birth. I think so much of this is how you prepare for it.

I asked my midwife at 19wks how I should prepare for my birth and she immediately suggested hypnobirthing. I got the book by Monagon that day and started reading it. I signed up for a class at the hospital that wouldn’t start until I was about 32 wks along. I had seen hypnobabies online but didn’t buy it. To my total surprise my husband bought it for me for Christmas and after starting the program I was grateful for it. I was skeptical that the hypnobirthing book and one track was going to be enough.
I will admit I was not the model student. The whole finger drop thing just didn’t work for me and I modified the cues and words to suit me. I made my own maintenance program up after the initial weeks were done with the tracks I found most powerful. I worked a lot on my fear. I was able to go limp when I needed but suffered bad restless leg syndrome during my pregnancy and ended up listening in center always. The hypnosis worked just how I needed it to and my whole deep ingrained view of birthing was changed. I believe the full perspective and frame of mind about childbirth that the hypnosis brought to me was what gave me the strength and will power when my birthing time came. When the time came it was easy… I just did it. My story follows.

Towards the end of my pregnancy I did more fear release sessions and we attended the hypnobirth class at the hospital. My husband up till now was not involved in my prep at all but was VERY supportive of a natural birth. We both found it very uncomfortable to read the scripts and laughed a lot when we tried to read them. I knew this aspect wouldn’t work for us and just went with it. I told him what I wanted out of him during labor and he was amazing when it came time. My word was release (I wasn’t too into the word relax- I felt that might annoy me). I printed out the birthing time cheat sheet and made a playlist on my ipod.
I decided to get some accupuncture at the end of 39 weeks (days 5/6)to try to help get things going but I felt that if she wasn’t really ready that it wouldn’t work. After the first treatment all my practice labor came to a complete hault, which is opposite of what I was told would happen. So I went back the next day for another treatment and still had no practice labor that day. I found it to be so odd and thought “calm before the storm?” The following day was my guess date and i had an appointment with my midwife. I requested to be checked (not previously checked) and was 1cm and 50% effaced.

I took the rest of the day off from anything baby. I got a pedicure, went to lunch with a girlfriend, made a yummy dessert and spent time with my husband. At 10:30pm that night as I was dozing on the couch I awoke to a sensation in my belly I had never felt before (definitely not a practice wave). I went to the bathroom and had a lot of bloody show. My midwife had told me to expect this from being checked so I didn’t think too much of it and went to bed.

I awoke again at 4am to the same feeling. I again went to the bathroom and knew at that time that I had lost my mucous plug. I then knew that was a wave and decided to just rest. They continued to wake me and I timed them laying in bed at 8 minutes apart. Around 6:30 am I fell soundly asleep and didn’t wake again until another wave around 8am. I woke my husband and told him it might be the day but my waves were slowing and coming every 15 min. During they day they slowed more to even 1 per hour at one point. I didn’t stress as I had heard labor can start this slow or stop and start in the early time. We put the car seat in and packed the bag. In the evening we visited some friends and I remained relaxed. I knew my real birthing time was nearing.
Around 9pm I told my husband that I thought we should head home. I can’t really remember if I had stronger/closer waves or if it was just a feeling. I put on birth day affirmations for the car ride home and started crying because I suddenly became VERY nervous, down right scared. My husband and I talked the whole car ride home and he was so good at reassuring me, by time we got home I was feeling a little better. We had discussed what exactly I was fearing and got it out. I drew a bath at home and did a fear release in the tub. By time I got out of the tub I felt confident and calm.

I looked at the clock and it was 10:30 pm (24hrs from the first wave felt) and I state this as the start of my time because waves started coming every 5-6 minutes and did not stop. I sat on my birth ball in the living room and layed over pillows. At about 2am my husband retimed my waves and they were still 5-6 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute. I really had to start focusing during the waves. I had been listening to my birthday affimations but decided to listen to comfortable childbirth. I decided I wanted to be in the bedroom although I could not lay down. I remained on the birth ball and layed over pillows on the bed. I dozed inbetween waves and told my husband to try to sleep.

At about 4am I put on the easy first stage track and the waves were gaining intensity. I needed to exhale loudly during the waves. By 5am I was letting out low moans during each wave. I still cannot replicate this sound as it came from somewhere deep inside. The waves were not getting any longer or closer together. I was getting tired and sat in bed with my back straight up against a wall. Around 8am my husband called my midwife and the labor and delivery unit of the hospital to tell them we would be coming at some point during the day.

Around 9 something (I had lost all track of time and length of waves, etc.) I told my husband we should leave soon but I wanted to shower first. At some point around this time my waves became very intense and seemed to be coming faster (my husband later told me he was timing them by my moaning and they had jumped to 2 min apart and 90sec in a flash). The shower was so difficult but worth it. The car ride was not so fun. We had a detour that extended what should have been 10 min to 20 min over a very bumpy road. I must admit that I lost my cool in the car. I felt overwhelmed and thought to myself that if I wasn’t past 4cm then I wanted an epidural. I was so tired (12hr past the start) and the bumps in the car were too much.

Once to the hospital I regained my cool in the car (parked) before we went in. My first check showed me to be 8cm and my husband and I both laughed and smiled a lot. My baby was going to be here soon!! I never mentioned drugs, no one offered them and the thought never crossed my mind again. After 2.5hrs I was rechecked with no change. I hadn’t moved or wanted to moved since we got there and I sat bolt upright on the side of the bed. With a little convincing I got up to empty my bladder and sit in the jacuzzi. Things definetly started to change in the tub because I felt that I needed to bear down during the waves and I felt worried that I was going to have a BM in the water (which I didn’t). Another check after the tub showed me to be about 9cm and I got on all fours to try to help the front of my cervix go. I really started feeling pushy and another check showed me to still be a 9 and I agreed to have my membranes released. I was at a 10 in no time after that.

I layed on my right side and felt most comfortable there. My midwife suggested I try pushing without making noise (purple pushing) and I will be honest- It felt good, it felt right, so I did it. I could feel with each push the baby moving down and that motivated me to push harder. I did ahhhhh push towards the end of each push. My husband had put on the pushing track after I got out of the tub and I forgot to mention that I had hypnobabies tracks playing outloud the entire time at the hospital and I found it to be soo helpful.

I would tune in and out to the tracks and I really focused on keeping my face and hands relaxed despite that I needed to low groan/moan for every wave. Inbetween waves I ate ice, drank water and talked to my husband, nurse and midwife. I was never hungry during labor and had a hard time keeping up my fluids. I pushed laying on my right side and birthed my baby on my side as well. 4.5hrs at the hospital and 50 minutes of pushing and my baby was born into the loving hands of my husband. My husband had been right by my side the whole time and told me how awesome I was doing the whole time (which is what I needed.) Bella Jane was born on March 28 (40wks, 2 days), 7lb 8oz and 20in.
Hypnobabies gave me the confidence and frame of mind that I needed to birth my baby the way I wanted. I got the birth I visualized and my midwife commented that I had a text book natural birth and they were really impressed with the hypnosis and the tracks. I will do this for any future babies and feel so healthy right now. My baby is so healthy and strong too
Thank you Hypnobabies!!!